At one point or another, we’ve all been forced to sit through
agonizing safety films for work or school. They’re not usually the most
fascinating flicks — they often feature stodgy narrators, cheesy
dialogue, and bad music — but the Rocky Mountain Sherpas are looking to
change all that with
The Fine Line: A 16 mm Avalanche Education Film.

Now, before you roll your eyes and suppress a yawn, be
forewarned, The Fine Line isn’t anything like that fire safety video you had to
watch during Home Ec class.

Malcolm Sangster and Dave Mossop are cofounders of the Rocky
Mountain Sherpas, a group of skiers, snowboarders, photographers and filmmakers
dedicated to promoting the beauty and freedom of big mountain sports. Founded
in Alberta in 1997, the Sherpas are now based out of Squamish. But over the
years, bouncing from one resort town to another — Revelstoke, Whistler,
and Golden — Sangster and Mossop have seen lots of slides claim lives.

During high school, they lost four friends to avalanches, and in
2003, they were also on the Strathcona-Tweedsmuir school backcountry daytrip
when a huge natural slide buried 17 people, killing seven.

“Since then, we’ve seen this happen again and again, and we’ve
always been like, ‘we gotta make a video that’s cool and going to speak to the
youth and be educational at the same time,’” Sangster said.

The project didn’t become a reality until last summer, when
they teamed up with the Canadian Avalanche Foundation (CAF).

Avalanche safety isn’t typically thought of as being
particularly wild, or even interesting, for that matter. But Sangster and
Mossop have managed to include a bit of “ski porn” — shots of big name
riders pulling sick tricks in beautiful places — to sex things up a bit.

“There are a lot of old people in the industry that think you
shouldn’t even teach kids about these things — it’s kind of like teaching
kids about sex and drugs, or something,” Sangster said with a laugh.

Now, it seems the CAF is taking a forward-thinking approach to
avalanche safety, opting to use ski films as a medium for their message to
youth.

The timing for the film couldn’t be better — with 16
avalanche fatalities in Canada last season alone, slides are definitely a hot
topic for skiers and snowboarders alike.